Morocco’s King Appoints General Director Of National Cannabis Agency

Back in mid-2021, Morocco passed a key measure that has helped pave the way for the nation’s emerging legal cannabis industry. Morocco has long served as a top source for unregulated cannabis, particularly for the European continent.

Now, thanks to the nation modernizing its cannabis policies, legal cannabis is cultivated in multiple Moroccan provinces. Roughly one year ago, Morocco issued ten permits for legal medical cannabis cultivation. Farmer cooperatives in the northern mountain areas of Al Houceima, Taounat, and Chefchaouen received the permits.

The agency that oversees the nation’s emerging legal industry is the National Agency for Regulating Cannabis Related Activities, which met for the first time in June 2022. The agency recently received a new general director. Per Morocco World News:

Morocco’s King Mohammed VI appointed Mohamed El Guerrouj as general director of the National Agency for Regulating Cannabis Related Activities (ANRAC).

The appointment was announced during the Council of Ministers meeting held in Rabat on Thursday.

Prior to the new appointment, El Guerrouj has been serving as an interim director for ANRAC since September 2022.

It will be some time before Morocco’s legal industry expands to a point that it can compete in any meaningful way with the nation’s unregulated market. Just as the unregulated market still exists in other legal jurisdictions, the same will always be true in Morocco to some extent.

With that being said, any economic stimulus that the emerging industry can provide is presumably very much welcomed in Morocco where per capita income is low and jobs are often hard to come by.